Willard D. Nielsen

Nielsen_Willard-DSCHRANZ LECTURER 2003

Bill Nielsen retired as Corporate Vice President of Johnson & Johnson in December 2004, after a nearly 16-year career with the Company. He was responsible for public relations and corporate communications for the worldwide health care products company, and he served as an Officer of the Corporation. He is currently a special consultant to the Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson.
Mr. Nielsen joined Johnson & Johnson in 1988, following an 18-year career as a public relations agency consultant, first with Carl Byoir & Associates, from 1970 to 1986, and then Hill and Knowlton.  From the corporation’s headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Johnson & Johnson’s public relations and corporate communications division oversees the public affairs responsibilities and activities of a widely diversified and decentralized “family” of 200+ operating companies in 57 countries around the world.  Mr. Nielsen’s professional accomplishments include leadership of an eight-year public relations and advertising education program for the pharmaceutical industry, and a nationwide child injury prevention campaign, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign. This campaign has reduced the annual rate of unintended injury and death among children by nearly 30 percent.

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